If you are going to college, then you must understand student loan services. Have you ever received an email from Great Lakes Educational Loan Services, Inc.? Wondered what it is? It’s related to student loans. Perhaps, you never heard about it before, not to mention you have never contacted or taken any loan from them.
Great Lakes might not be a popular name among student loan servicers. The official name of the company is Great Lakes Educational Loan Services, Inc. The US Department of Education (ED) owns Great Lakes as a loan servicer for federal student loans. You can check this detail on the official website of student aid.
It may approach you for student loans. Some of you may be in doubt, so we’ve written this article about Great Lakes Student Loans.
Great Lakes Education Loan Service, Inc
Their head office is located at 2401, International Lane, Madison, Wisconsin, 53704, United States. It is a part of the Great Lakes but provides student loans across the nation. The US Department of Education (ED) contracted with Great Lakes Loan Service, Inc., with the other ten student loan companies, to deal with federal student loans. Nelnet Diversified Solutions, LLC, is the parent company and bought this company for $192.6 billion in 2017-2018. It’s different from Great Lakes Higher Education Corporation.
More facts about the company:
- It has been in providing service in federal loans since 1978. An old company to trust.
- Over 2000 employees are working in this company to provide better service.
- The company has over 100 customer care representatives to resolve your queries.
- It has a record of helping more than eight million students facing different situations across the nation.
- To date, the company has invested approximately $260 million in grants to the communities.
- The company stands firm in managing billions of dollars in consolidation loans.
- The company works in collaboration with over a thousand lenders and approximately six hundred schools, along with the Department of Education, US.
How Is A Student Loan Servicer Assigned to You?
You may be thinking about how a company that you are unaware of has been given the charge to handle your federal student loan.
The US Education Department accepts your student loan request through your college and processes it. Authorities approve your loan request, disburse the funds, and your student loan account is handed over to any of the eleven student loan servicers. No one knows which student loan servicer you’re going to assign. Great Lakes Education Loan Service, Inc. may be assigned to you. The company will get in touch with you after it is assigned to manage your student loan. Mostly, a company contacts you after the first payment of your loan disbursement.
How to Avoid Student Loan Scams?
Great Lakes is one of the most commonly assigned servicers for federal student loans.
Definitely, you are concerned about whether the communication you received is legitimate or not. Yes, you have the option to cross-check. What you need to do is, visit the website studentaid.gov and log in to your Federal Student Aid account. There you can see your federal student loan information, including your servicers for each loan.
You can be a victim of student loan scams. According to the US Department of Education, there is a possibility, some scammers contact Great Lakes borrowers and make false claims about student loan forgiveness or student loan status. Several debt relief funds also offer help with student loans, just to charge the borrowers for services that are free of cost otherwise, which may include deferment or lowering down the payment.
You must read this to avoid loan scams. This way, you can prevent financial loss. You always contact your servicer through a secure way you are familiar with.
How to Work with Great Lakes?
As assigned, Great Lakes, as your servicer for your student loan, you need to contact the company for every matter regarding your student loan, starting from the initial to the final payment. Starting from the initial days of the loan, you are not compelled to repay it while completing your studies in college, and you may simply have queries or want to check the balance.
Once your repayment time arrives, it can help you by providing the following:
- Help you while you are facing difficulties in repaying the amount.
- Various options to convert the repayment plan, including an income-driven repayment plan.
- Apply for deferment or forbearance of the student loan to suspend or reduce your installments temporarily.
- Suggest if the federal student loan consolidation is suitable for you. If yes, then the process to complete is the same.
Pay utmost attention to official mails or emails sent about the Great Lakes Loans. Those may provide you with sensitive or timely notification of missed payments or nonpayment of debt (due).
Tip: Keep steady over your Great Lakes student loans to keep them on the most favorable terms and defend yourself from fees, harm to your credit report/score, student loan defaulter, or even a wage garnishment order from the court.
How to Contact Great Lakes?
There are many ways to reach their customer service regarding queries and loan repayment:
1. You may call on (800) 236-4300
Their working hours are from Monday to Friday from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Central Time Zone.
2. You may send an email to them asking about your queries. Email id of the company- borrowerservices@glhec.org, or you may simply complete the online contact form.
3. You may send a fax to (800) 375-5288
4. General correspondence address:
Great Lakes
PO Box 7860
Madison, WI 53707-7860
5. Connect with them on Social Media: Facebook and Twitter.